Festivaler på Sørlandet

Festivals have been a long-standing tradition in the UK and the research into festivals in the UK is ongoing, has proven worthwhile and yielded some useful information. The research can be grouped into three broad areas of interest: Economic Impact, Festival Forms and Cultural and Social Critique. The UK research teams, one of the FESTIVALS project partners, are now involved in the FESTIVALS research project and HERA bid.

Economic Impact

Several recent research projects have focused on measuring the economic impact of festivals as well as assessing their marketing and business strategies, the results of which have been widely cited.

An example of such revealing research is a study, commissioned by the British Association of Arts Festivals (BAFA 2000, 2002 and 2007), which used questionnaires completed by member festivals to provide significant data on audience figures and attendance, income, programming and so on. The results were promising in their assessment of festivals’ capacity to attract new audiences, encourage new talent, and generate revenue for traders and the surrounding area.

Other significant studies, funded by the Arts Councils or other government bodies, seek to understand the economic and cultural impact of festivals with a view to informing future planning and funding (Maughan and Bianchini, 2004; AEA Consulting, 2006. See also Unwin et al, 2007).

The Celebrating Enterprise project, led by City University, London, investigated the role of migrants’ festivals in stimulating employment and economic regeneration.

Festival Forms

The Association of Festival Organisers has centred much research on folk festivals (AFO 2004) with, for example, the Afro-Caribbean Carnival and, in particular, the Notting Hill Carnival receiving considerable attention in recent years. The findings from such research included an economic impact study of the Notting Hill Carnival, by the London Development Agency (LDA), which found that the event in 2002 had a significant and beneficial local and financial impact, generating £93m. (LDA 2003). In addition, a review of Notting Hill Carnival, conducted by the Mayor of London’s office in 2004, closely influenced national policy on carnival arts (ACE 2005; Mayor of London 2004).

These documents have been central to ongoing debates between Carnival organisers and local authorities, demonstrating the instrumental, sometimes politically charged nature of much commissioned festivals research, but also the value placed on empirical studies of festivals.

Cultural and Social Critique

There is little work on the festivals from a critical cultural and social perspective. Much of this work considers that claim that festivals exist on the fringes of society and are sites of transgression. Research into the Glastonbury Festival (Larsen and O’Reilly) looks at how the festival is viewed as a utopia by attendees. Other work focuses on how the experience of festival participants is influenced by social and cultural capital (Wilks), or by notions of cultural consumption (Larsen and O’Reilly 2005).

A series of studies has traced the cultural, political and symbolic development of particular festivals, as a focus for creative and social exchange and meaning-making, and a barometer of change (see Bartie 2007 on Edinburgh Festival, and Alleyne 1998 and Cohen 1993 on Notting Hill Carnival).

For more information see the other FESTIVAL partner countries:

• Croatia
• Finland
• Norway
• Sweden

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